by Ellis, Tara
Peta gritted her teeth together and handed the masks to the soldiers. She watched Rogers as he sat his on the table before he flipped up the stubby antenna and began pushing some buttons, thankful again that he was there. It would have taken her and Devon a few minutes to figure the thing out. “I suspect the seafloor experienced a catastrophic rupture which then resulted in seawater injection into the caldera, creating a type of phreatomagmatic eruption—”
“Whoa,” Rogers interrupted, sticking a hand up. He had the phone to his ear, apparently waiting for someone to answer. “Layman’s terms, doctor.”
“It’s the largest freaking eruption in recorded history,” Devon offered. “There’s a chance everyone on this island won’t be alive in less than an hour.”
Ensign Hernandez blanched and looked at the door before reaching out to accept his respirator.
Rogers looked to Peta for confirmation and she shrugged, still feeling emotionally numb and removed, like she was a spectator. “Ask the base if they can confirm the eruption and size of the pyroclastic surge.” When the soldier raised his eyebrows at her, she struggled to find the right words. “There’s a wave of hot gasses surging across the water right now. Once it passes, we’ll have a window you might be able to use to fly us out in the Sea King, before the ashfall makes it impossible.”
The Sea King was a huge Naval amphibious helicopter, used to move personnel and supplies back and forth between Outlander, the base, and sometimes Madagascar. Peta didn’t think it could fly as far as Diego Garcia, but if they could get to Madagascar fast enough, they had a better chance of getting on a plane.
Lieutenant Rogers plugged one ear and turned his back on the rest of them while yelling into the phone. Peta’s anxiety surged again with the possibility of having her greatest fears confirmed.
“Everyone on Outlander is dead.” Devon took Peta’s arm, forcing her to face him. Reality was setting in and the man was close to panicking. “They’re all dead.”
Before she could try and come up with some hollow reassurances, a deep vibration resonated through the concrete surrounding them, stirring up more dust and making it harder to breathe. Peta winced as the lights dimmed and she dropped to her knees near the tub of supplies, intent on finding flashlights or glow sticks. She assumed the power on the island was already out and the lab was running off its large generator, but there was no guarantee it wouldn’t fail, too.
“How big do those quakes have to be for us to feel it this much?” Ensign Hernandez asked, kneeling down next to her. He reached in and pulled out a bag of green glowsticks.
It was a reasonable question and Peta looked at him gratefully, taking several of the sticks and putting them in her back pocket. “You don’t typically see quakes much larger than a magnitude of five, maybe six, with a large eruption.”
“Except this isn’t typical,” Devon corrected, catching the stick Hernandez threw at him. “To be shaking this much six hundred miles away?”
“At least a magnitude of eight,” Peta guessed. “Maybe more. Probably more, or else they’re originating a lot closer.”
The Lieutenant suddenly sprinted across the room and slammed the metal door, latching the deadbolt. Even in the dimming light, Peta could clearly see that he was terrified as he turned back to face them, the phone still pressed against his head.
“It’s headed straight for us.” Rogers voice was hoarse, and he attempted to clear it while lowering the phone. “No one has ever seen anything like it, and it’s impossible to know if we can survive it. If we do, we have another problem.”
“You mean besides the colossal tsunamis it’s generated and the ash column that’s already collapsing back toward us?” Peta asked. Her fingers were numb and she was having a hard time getting the mask to fit over her head.
“The radar shows a pocket of gas.”
Peta stopped with her hair tangled in the straps, the plastic halfway down her face. “I don’t understand.” It was something she rarely ever said.
“They suspect it’s a vast methane plume, and it’s… growing.” Rogers voice had become muffled as he got his own mask in place.
Peta’s mind raced as she tried to gauge the new threat. There were historical accounts of lakes on the African continent exploding due to large pockets of trapped gas. Whole villages were killed in their sleep by the resulting toxic clouds. Frozen methane had been located in various locations in the ocean, so was it possible there was an underground source trapped between the layers of the Earth?
“We don’t have any idea what’s really down there in the MOHO,” Devon said with a tinge of both awe and contempt.
Peta turned to face him, pulling her mask the rest of the way down so that his features were distorted by the flickering lights and the plastic. She was chilled by what she saw and knew in that moment nothing was ever going to be the same again.
He continued to speak as the four of them were plunged into darkness.
“We have no idea what’s been released.”
Chapter 6
TYLER
Antisiranana, Madagascar
750 miles NW of Mauritius Island
Tyler did his best to concentrate on the palm trees passing outside the window. Normally, the green sweeping landscape of the Madagascar jungle against the white-sand beaches was enough to calm even his worst case of nerves, but Tyler couldn’t focus on it. Instead, he kept glancing nervously over at his dad while unsuccessfully attempting to control his breathing.
“Are you okay, Tyler?” The question was so rhetorical that his dad didn’t even try to sugar-coat it with any follow-up reassurances.
Tyler chortled in response and it came out sounding like a choked whimper. He cleared his throat and then made the mistake of looking out the front window. It was cracked in several places, making the yellow lines rushing at them waver and dance in erratic patterns. “I think I’m gonna throw up.”
“Do it on the floor. We can’t stop.”
Tyler squeezed his eyes shut and sucked in a ragged breath. “Yeah, that really doesn’t help me feel any better, Dad.” Leaning his head against the passenger window, he felt some relief from the coolness of the glass against his forehead and attempted again to think clearly.
They were headed away from the small town where the private school was located, and into the surrounding countryside. The nicer residential areas were nestled in vast pockets of harvested jungle, though they never quite succeeded at holding it back completely. It resulted in a unique mix of proper yards and wild, untamed expanses.
Tyler didn’t think it would be possible to get very far in some of the bigger cities. All the traffic lights were busted out, broken like the windows in the classroom. He figured anyone driving in traffic when “it” happened might have wrecked, making the already impossible congestion on the busy roads even worse. Of course, he still had no idea why any of that mattered. He opened his eyes and looked again at his father with a new resolve.
“Tell me what that was. How could anything happening with the MOHO do something like that here?” Tyler rubbed at his stomach, willing it to settle down.
“It was probably a pressure wave,” Bill Edmonds said in his typical teacher lecture voice.
Tyler knew his dad’s tone well and though he would normally sigh at that point in anticipation of a long-winded explanation to come, he instead turned eagerly toward him. Any information was better than not knowing.
“The MOHO volcano erupted, probably taking the island with it in some sort of explosive event.” Bill slowed to maneuver around a car that had veered off the road and into a tree. The door was open and it appeared empty inside, though Tyler was surprised they didn’t stop to check. It was so out of character for his dad that it made his stomach spasm again.
When the silence dragged on and Tyler realized his father was done talking, it only intensified his unease. It was like he was in the car with a stranger. “I’ve never heard of a volcano eruption making a sound like that,” he pressed. “
And we’re a thousand miles away, Dad! What are you so freaked out about? You said we were going to die. How are we going to die?”
Bill shifted uneasily in his seat and his fingers tapped sporadically at the steering wheel. “It’s easier if you just look out the rear window.”
His brows drawing together in confusion, Tyler twisted further in his seat until he was facing the back. At first, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Then, he understood it was only because his brain wasn’t grasping and interpreting things correctly.
The bright-blue sky was stark against the canopy of the forest. Rising above it was what seemed at first like a dark smudge on the glass of the rear window. Tyler rubbed at eyes and then unfastened his seatbelt so he could scramble into the backseat, kicking his father in the head as he went.
Ignoring the grunt of pain from his dad, Tyler grabbed at the top edge of the backseat and leaned in until his nose was pressed against the window. It was also cracked, but not enough to hide the truth. No, it wasn’t an oil smudge. It was a mushrooming cloud so big that it was incomprehensible.
The words were stuck in his throat, his mouth suddenly too dry to speak. “What—” before Tyler could form a coherent sentence, the car jerked to the side hard enough to throw him across the backseat and into the passenger side door.
“Hold on!” his dad yelled after the fact, slamming on the breaks so that the cars tires let out a loud squeal of protest.
Tyler found himself crumpled on the floor of the car, and although he knew they were no longer moving, he could swear the vehicle was still bouncing up and down.
“Earthquake,” Bill explained. He peered down at Tyler, his glasses sliding down his nose.
The awkward hero persona was almost enough to make Tyler laugh in the midst of his hysteria, and it emphasized how bizarre the whole situation was. Pushing himself up from the floor, he discovered that a large palm tree had fallen, blocking part of the road. The jungle around them was indeed swaying like a hurricane-force wind was assaulting it. The car moved under him like they were on the tracks of a carwash gone haywire.
Tyler had experienced a few earthquakes, though they were nothing more than a four and five magnitude, which had felt like a truck hitting their house. The motion and damage occurring around them had to be on a scale of something much, much bigger. It reminded him of the growing cloud of God only knew what, and he looked back to make sure he hadn’t imagined it.
“It’s a pyroclastic flow of some sort,” his dad offered, easing the car around the fallen tree. “I’m hoping by the time it reaches us it won’t be that destructive, though your mother seems to think we’re at risk.”
“At risk?” Tyler echoed. He clambered back into the front seat and stared incredulously at his dad. “Do you see that?” he yelled, pointing at the plume behind them. “How can you be so freaking calm? You’re acting like this is one of your chemistry lessons. The MOHO erupting shouldn’t be capable of creating something that big! That’s why Mom moved us to this island, because we’d be closer to her while still being safe. That’s what she said. We studied historic eruptions last month as part of the whole ongoing MOHO mania at our school. This shouldn’t be possible!”
Bill clenched his jaw in one of the first signs of any real emotion. “I’ve taught you enough to know better than to assume something isn’t possible simply because it’s never happened before. At least, not in recorded history.”
His dad looked at him then. Really looked at him, and the terror boiling just beneath the surface was palpable. “I’m just getting us home, Tyler. I have to get us home.”
Tyler fell away from his father, understanding how close he was to totally losing it. His dad really believed they were going to die and the realization only fueled his own panic. “Okay,” Tyler said as calmly as he could while watching his father closely. “Okay, Dad. We’ll get home. We’re almost there.”
Bill nodded; his knuckles white as he tightly gripped the steering wheel. “Then we’ll check in with your mom. She’ll get us out.”
Get us out.
Tyler was trying to process that comment when they came around a curve and he saw someone furiously peddling a bike down the middle of the road. “Mikael!”
“We can’t stop.”
Tyler scowled at his dad. “It’s Mikael, Dad! We have to get him!” He knew his best friend was skipping that day to dive out at Sugarcube Island, one of their favorite spots. Tyler would have been with him if he didn’t have a test in English. He would be riding back to his parents’ resort, on another popular beach over ten miles away from where they were. Based on his dad’s fear level, he didn’t think his friend had that much time. And if what his dad was saying was true, Tyler suspected the beach wasn’t where anyone should be when the waves began to roll in. At least their house was in one of the higher elevations on that end of the island.
“Dad!” he hollered, as they came alongside the other teen. Mikael looked up and recognizing them, raised a hand. Tyler couldn’t tell if his friend was simply surprised to see them, or if he was dazed.
Tyler was debating whether or not to grab at the steering wheel when his dad finally slowed the car.
“Make it fast,” he ordered while honking the horn several times to get Mikael to stop.
Tyler didn’t notice the ground vibrating when he jumped out, and the trees were still. He hoped it was maybe a good sign that things could be calming down. However, as he grabbed for his best friend, it was undeniable that the churning black cloud was getting bigger, which also meant it was coming closer. “You gotta come with us, man.”
Mikael dropped his bike and stood looking back and forth between Tyler and the car, his mouth hanging open. “Why? I’m going to the resort. I don’t know what’s happening. Something bad is going on, Ty, and my mom isn’t answering the phone.”
Tyler glanced nervously at his dad and pulled harder at Mikael’s arm. “The MOHO’s erupted. We’ll be safer at my house and you can call your parents from our landline when we get there.”
Thankfully, the other boy was in enough shock that he allowed himself to be led to the car, leaving his bike strewn across the dividing line of the two-way road. Tyler felt a brief pang of regret. Mikael had saved for over a year to buy the bike and it was his most treasured possession. He didn’t know why it was so upsetting to him, considering what was going on.
As they drove away, the two boys huddled quietly in the backseat. Tyler was fixated on the bicycle and he watched it until the jungle eventually blocked his view. Something so simple, so… normal. In that moment, Tyler knew it was a part of their life they’d never get back.
Chapter 7
JASON
Seattle, Washington
The bacon sizzled loud enough to make Marty drool in anticipation and he licked his chops loudly while tilting his head at Jason.
“Patience, bud.” Jason pointed a spatula at the shepherd mix for emphasis. He’d only recently managed to get Marty to stop whining whenever he ate and didn’t want any other bad habits to form. They’d been roommates now for around six months and were still feeling each other out to a certain degree.
Jason had never planned on having a dog. At least, not while he was still living in Seattle. The stray had followed him home one night and he could never turn away a fellow creature in need.
Jason had one more year left in his residency in the busy ER at Harborview and then he’d be heading back to either California or maybe even Montana. The past two years of hiking in the Cascade Mountains had given Jason a wanderlust that was never quite satisfied and he longed to live in the solitude of the woods. Marty was a natural on the trails and had become a solid companion.
“And now for another update on the historic events unfolding in the Indian Ocean that began with an explosion heard around the world.”
Jason’s head snapped up and he reached for the remote control on the kitchen counter. Turning up the volume as he walked into the adjoining family room, he forgot
about his breakfast.
“Seattle residents, and the rest of the world for that matter, were awoken early this morning at 5:32 am, Pacific Mountain Time, to what most thought was nothing more than a sonic boom.”
Jason raised his eyebrows at the newscaster. After falling out of bed when he’d been jolted awake an hour earlier, it had taken him a while to sift through what was part of his dream and what was real. He came to the conclusion that it was most likely a small, shallow quake. His time in the Marines made him familiar enough with sonic booms so he was able to rule it out as a source. Aside from getting up an hour earlier than normal, and having to fall back on some old techniques to talk himself down, Jason really didn’t think much more about the source of the sound itself.
“We have come to learn that this was in reality a pressure wave from a catastrophic eruption of what has been called the MOHO island, located in the Indian Ocean off the southern tip of Africa, more than eleven-thousand miles away.”
Marty whined, making Jason aware of the accumulating smoke in the kitchen behind him. Cursing under his breath, he ran to remove the pan from the stove, hoping the bacon was salvageable.
“What?” Jason said defensively when the dog continued to stare at him disapprovingly while he cautiously picked the non-charred pieces out. “Regardless of the cataclysm happening on the literal other side of the world, a guy’s gotta eat.”
Jason was definitely curious about the mechanism behind something that could produce such a loud explosion, but he figured there would be a more in-depth article available later that day he could read. He knew enough about the curious submarine volcano debacle to understand it was in the middle of a vast ocean and not much of a threat to anyone. At least, that was how it’d been portrayed.
Grabbing a plate already loaded with a couple of fried eggs and buttered toast, he added the precious bacon to complete his normal feast. He’d always been a big eater and Jason relied on the morning ritual to get his day off to a good start. He made up for the diet with regular workouts at the gym. Taking his mug of coffee, he sat back down on the couch to catch the last of the news.